1

N
o
v
e
m
b
e
r

2
0
0
6

Windows Media Player 11

Wired News likes this new version of the, um, media player software from Microsoft. Here’s a screenshot taken from their review:

Where do I begin?

  • So much space, and so little clear demarcation of areas. Everything looks sprawled out, and almost apologetically un-intrusive – except for the blue highlights.
  • Can I drag music onto a playlist, or must I use the ‘Drag items here’ area?
  • What does the area marked with that big blue triangle signify?
  • What does the little blue arrow, next to ‘No items’ signify?
  • What does the cross next to ‘Untitled Playlist’ mean?
  • Why is there a Stop button as well as a Pause button?
  • Why are the tabs along the top a mixture of Nouns and Verbs?
  • Apparently you need to do a custom install to avoid integration with the Urge music store.
Permalink | General Musings

4 Responses to "Windows Media Player 11"

  1. 1 November 2006 at 07:31 PM

    Mark H wrote:

    Um. Yes. Horrid!

    Be fair though: we all know what the cross next to “Untitled Playlist” means (standard glyph for “delete” in Windows).

    One could also pick similar holes in limited areas of iTunes interface, looking at it purely visually, e.g. what do the little arrows next to artists/albums/tracks in iTunes mean?

    But yes. Overall, it would appear to be neither aesthetic nor intuitive. What ever has happened? There used to be a time when Microsoft could do a half decent job of imitating others ;-)

  2. 2 November 2006 at 10:41 AM

    chris wrote:

    That cross could mean two things: either delete the empty, untitled playlist (huh?), or remove that section from WMP.

    Don’t get me started on the arrows in iTunes.. that’s a whole different ball-game of uglyness.

  3. 2 November 2006 at 11:24 AM

    Mark H wrote:

    See what you mean. But assuming it’s consistent with Windows, then it’ll be a delete. To remove that pane from the interface would have something more like the window close glyph. But I agree that it’s an unfortunate choice of glyphs by Microsoft that the two are so similar (it’s because when they introduced the red cross to Windows it was because they wanted to copy everyone else’s seminal trash can button, but they didn’t want to copy the seminal trash can glyph, as if that would throw us of the scent!).

    Did you also notice that you have to save a playlist after you’ve created it or modified it? Why the document analogy?

  4. 3 November 2006 at 08:34 AM

    chris wrote:

    The ‘save playlist’ button is quite interesting. It means that you can have a playlist which isn’t saved, but which you can still use.

    iTunes removes this problem by making it easy to create new playlists: select what you want and drag over to the Playlist label. Result: new playlist with a sensible title.

Leave a Reply

Grab the RSS feed, or have a wander through the archives

copyright ©2006 and so on, ninthspace.org, except quotations, lyrics and some images which are the rights of their respective holders